The steady decline of mankind

The devil caused Moore to fall and break his hip, Moore believes. He describes his conviction that the world is growing weaker and wilder, each generation worse than the next. He sees evidence of this devolution in the fashion and hairstyles of young people.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with John Thomas Moore, October 18, 2000. Interview R-0142. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

CHRISTOPHER WEBER:

Now the toes—when did that happen?

JOHN THOMAS MOORE:

First the toes, then the Devil made me fall and broke my hip.
He's always trying to do something to hinder God's
folk. From the beginning, God threw them out of
heaven, he [unclear] , and it's
been hell and damnation ever since. It's getting worse and
worse and worse. People don't realize what's
happening. God (assumes) the covenant, Devil's getting busier
and busier. That's the reason the world is like it is today.
It's going to get worse. You keep living, I keep living, we
gonna see it. It's going to get worse and worse.
It's terrible now, but it's going to be worse than
it is now. We ain't going to be able to go out our doors
after a while, it's going to be so bad. Anyway,
that's what the Bible say. You read Revelation and go back to
Daniel, go back to Genesis and it will tell you all about
what's going to happen. There it is, right before your eyes.
He said, "Each generation will get weaker and wilder."
These young people are now doing any and everything. They're
wearing clothes that you thought they would never wear. I've
never known a man to have no braids in his
hair—that's a sin. A woman has her glory:
she's supposed to look nice and look good for you. But
ain't no man supposed to have hair all long and caught down
his back and all that. They don't like a natural man. They
look like a woman, look like somebody out of his mind or crazy or
something like that. [claps]
But—this hair I got is the hair I was born with. My
momma's daddy was an Indian chief; that's where I
got my hair and that's why I look like I do.